I have been busy reading all the back posts and I just wanted to know if Paul Owen is the offical president of the Ebony Fan Club...you crack me up..I don't mean in a bad way. You just get SOOOO excited!!

Ed

-- Ed Candland (ecandland@earthlink.net), February 12, 2002

Answers

Ed, you're absolutely right!! I do get very excited over my Ebony!!! There I've said it now!! I think my "obsession" stems from a deep fear I held for a long time that stopped me entering the world of LF - that of complicated cameras. I used to worry that only "clever" photographers could master the skills needed to cocoon themselves beneath a darkcloth and make sense of all those knobs!! Ebony proved that a LF camera can be a very simple tool - so much so that even I now have control over it! I desperately wanted to get into LF for a long time and the simplicity of the Ebony made the step less painless (I made the "jump" before having access to the Internet and this great Forum and all its sound advice!)And yes, every time I use my camera I do tell myself that it is just a tool - but a mighty fine one at that!! I'm glad my enthusiasm is this evident -I really enjoy my LF photography! I'm still waiting for the nipple hardening!! maybe I'm not trying hard enough! Regards Paul

-- paul owen (paulowen_2000@yahoo.com), February 12, 2002.

As a proud Ebony owner I would like to place a motion on the floor to elect Paul as our President! Anybody second the motion? :>))

-- James Phillips (grey_wolf@telusplanet.net), February 12, 2002.

I second the motion! My recent Ebony RW45 purchase was directly related to Paul's entusiasm about his own Ebony camera .....

-- Robert J. Fox (aa8yo@yahoo.com), February 12, 2002.

I second that motion! I myself would be far too critical - even though Ebony cameras are the best they can still be improved upon... click... (sound of opening of can of large format worms)...

-- Åke Vinberg (ake@vinberg.nu), February 13, 2002.

I also have an Ebony camera that I enjoy using. Ake, there are small improvements that I suppose could be made, but I feel that the Ebony cameras are already very well thought-out as Wooden Field Cameras. I am sure that cameras from other top-of-the-line manufacturers are just about as good. However, major "improvements" would really amount to a change in aesthetics. If a photographer needs a metal geared camera which operates with amazing smoothness, then an Arca-Swiss will work just fine. The pleasure of the Ebony is obvious to anyone who uses one: it is relatively light, very rigid, beautiful as a tool (this is not a trivial consideration) and easy to operate in the field. Because everything works correctly, you can forget about your camera and concentrate on your photography.

-- Michael H. Alpert (alpert@umit.maine.edu), February 13, 2002.

Michael,

I was just being ironic. These are great cameras, I am particularly happy about the non-folding design which for me is much more important than the use of titanium instead of steel. My purchase decision came from a positive experience I had with the Hasselblad Arcbody, so in a way I went up in format size from 6x6 to 6x9 rather than down from 4x5. Craftmanship is superb, as well as functional design and arguably looks as well. And yes, perhaps some day I could use more than 20 degrees front tilt, but it won't happen often!

My vote is still for Paul :-)

Åke

-- Åke Vinberg (ake@vinberg.nu), February 13, 2002.

If I had 5¢ every time the E word gets used on this forum.....I could buy one too! ö¿ö

-- Jim Galli (jimgalli@lnett.com), February 13, 2002.